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Today over at WoW Insider, I go over some of the essential hunter addons:

Playing WoW means dealing with a constant incoming stream of information. Damage and healing numbers, angry floors trying to eat us, buffs and enrages to be dispelled, casts to be interrupted, angry floors trying to burn us, proc notifications and aspect dancing, angry floors trying to suck us into a twilight realm, resource management, and angry floors trying to do every other bad thing imaginable.

But no matter how much information the game throws at us, it’s never enough. We want more.

Enter the addon. While the in-game UI is constantly improving in Blizzard’s ongoing efforts to improve the hunter experience, there is some information it still doesn’t provide. More often, there is important information that the game doesn’t provide in an easy-to-assimilate format.

Today we’re going to go over some of the basic hunter addons for Cataclysm. As usual, I’m ignoring custom UIs here, since as hunters we don’t really need them, and they’re very personalized anyway. So join me after the cut for the must-have hunter addons… Read More.

Deadly Boss Mods / BigWigs – there are one more you forgot to tell ppl about Raid Watch 2(http://www.wowace.com/addons/rw2/) that is the 3 major once that is used atm if you look at downloads they all more or less have the same amount now days the only think that is diffrent is that DBM is not updated as often as RW2 and BW

When I began playing a hunter, I very quickly learned that Tanks don’t like pets that growl or stomp. So I learned how to turn that pet ability on/off.

Now, that I’ve learned to control my threat, and expect other to do the same, I want to keep that ability on. Isn’t it much better to have the pet second on the threat meter than a squishy mage or the HEALER?

So now I’m at the point of asking the Tank if he needs me to neuter my pet or not, and explain why. I mean, I’d really rather not wipe because someone else couldn’t watch their own aggro. If it’s preventable, even by some little action by me, isn’t that a good thing?

i tend to keep an icon within easy reach for pet growl , say we have 10 npc mob and 1 goes for the healer – that is my job growl is back on pet then drags that npc back into the tanks threat zone i shut down growl
i call it PET CONTROL , ive been thanked so many times for this tactic

You can have it on the action and just right click it so it’s not an active move, then when needed you have the choice to click/ctrl __ button to use it. It makes it so your pet won’t growl unless you manually use the move yourself. Hope this helps!

Gnosis – Similar to Quartz in many ways, intended to be a cast bar replacement but you can hook it to other bars (health, focus, etc). I use it for both a cast bar replacement as well as Health and Focus bars. I position them similar to how ICEHud works, vertically around my character. I also have my pet health and a few timers (Rapid Fire, a few others) as bars.http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/gnosis.aspx

All of the addons you have listed there are great and I use all of the except for the Hunter Focus Bar. I found a great addon I use instead of this called IceHUD; I prefer it because it is more customizable and it can be set up to track almost any buffs/debuffs/timers for you, your pet and your target. I use it to track the time remaining on Serpent Sting and Improved Steady Shot (and it has a bar that shows you exactly how much sound/corruption you have in the Atramedes/Cho’gall fights). I personally find it very handy.

I don’t think it’s fair to call these addons “the must-have hunter addons” when others serve the same functions equally well (allowing for some aesthetic subjectivity). Needtoknow, for example, is an excellent tracker for the same things that power auras follow.

I am definitely trying out Raid Checklist. I’ve been referencing Petopia’s flowchart, but that isn’t as in-depth as the checklist appears to be.

I used Power Auras for awhile, but when I reset all my addons for Cataclysm, I never picked it back up. I think it’s because NTK covers all the info I need. I have a Mend Pet bar above my player/pet frame (center left of screen), and LnL or Frenzy/Focus Fire bars above my cast bar. If I had any other procs or c/d’s to watch, I would also track those this way. I could use the aspect awareness assistance. Is there a low CPU option for this?

I use EnergyWatch, as I have a Feral Druid alt and a Rogue alt (Dwarf, of course. If I could roll a Dwarf Druid, I would. I just have to settle with the not-Night-Elf choice of Worgen). It helps me keep from capping focus under haste buffs, and decide when to fire an Arcane Shot.

I have heard many good things about JS’ Hunterbar, but some of it’s functions are covered by NTK, Energywatch and Quartz and other functions I am not interested in. What I am interested in is the CC timers on off-targets and Tranq Shot info.

I’ve been using JS’s Hunterbar for a few weeks now. I had no idea how many opportunities i was missing to use Tranq shot. WoW! What a difference it makes too. I’ve been debuffing mobs and pvpers like mad! Its priceless to see Mages turn and run once their buffs get dropped, Shammy’s too for that matter! WOOT!

I frakking LOVE Raid Checklist. Bummer it always tells me to run with a ravager.

I’d also recommend GTFO to help with situational awareness. Nothing like a loud klaxon to tell you to move your arse. Do it often enough you’ll find yourself dancing out of the way before the klaxon even goes off, and your healers will love you for it.

GTFO is wonderful. The warnings will often precede those of DBM for the same kind of danger, and they’re so pointedly different from DBM sounds that when one goes off you know that it could only mean one thing: MOVE (or stop moving but I’ve yet to test it in SFK). The warning sounds themselves loop faster, so you know more precisely when you’ve entered, and when you’ve exited the offending substance. It’s ideal for fights like heroic Maloriak where you get all the black badness on the ground, and Val ‘n’ Ther and Atramedes, where you get miserable stuff all over the place. It even gives you a gentle warning when you stand in the zombie gas on Tol Barad peninsula! =) I don’t know how I lived without it – literally.

Any “must-have” hunter addon list without JS´ Hunter Bar is not complete. Not only has JSHB all info you need but also it replaces several addons for you (Yes, I even said Good bye to my beloved NeedToKnow…) Only thing it doesnt have (but it is planned) are Aspect indicator and Cast bar.
Look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXGpSVpUKHU , it is the addon above cast bar.
My setup consists of: MMM stacks, target HP%, numeric focus, focus marker for Chimera Shot, Chimera Shot Icon (dim when on CD, light when available), Serpent Sting Icon (dim when SS on target, light when not present), Improved Steady (dim when not on, light when on), Hunter´s Mark reminder (shows if HM not on target), RF and Hero slider on focus bar, CC timer icons above focus bar, Tranq Shot reminder above focus bar

Nice set of articles and it’s always nice to find more alternatives to what I use already or something new to play with.

Is the in game Power Auras that terrible that people are still relying on PA and WA to display procs? I switched off of PA after heroic LK but I’m notice any terrible lack of information, mainly because there isn’t a tier bonus proc that you have to weave Serpent Sting with.

However some one will have to explain to me why people still use Recount over Skada when Skada is more closely related to WoL and other online parsing services, is more customizable in terms of what it shows and more lightweight because you can turn off things a hunter might not care about, like healing done.

Is there a addon that specifically tells you when to use Tranq shot? (In both raids and PvP). I know JS Hunter Bar has that as one of its functions, but I don’t need the other “fluff” that comes with it. I’m just looking for a simple, easy to use, Tranq shot addon that notifies me when there is a buff that can be Tranq’d off a mob (trash & bosses) and enemies (PvP/Arena). Thx guys!

If you have an update for HunterFocusBar could you put it up because I saw it and though that would be really helpful, but found out it was out of date. Just wanted to know if you found a new one or just threw that one away.

I would llike to mention another great addon, its more than a Focus Bar. Serenity, the addon, shows you how much focus you still need for KC if you are in BM. Or Explosive Shot when you are in SV and Chim Shot in MM. It also tracks down the bosses HP, when your cd’s are ready.

I’d like to find an addon that either tracks current cast time of Aimed shot or my current haste, since in many situations I hard-cast Aimed shot when the cast time is at 1.8s. I know I can track all buffs and procs, but if I could just track one thing I’d prefer that.